CommentsDeane's Comments(rates
this release 3.5/5.0)Want the quick
one-sentence review : Too many differing sources, too many different genres, too
much filler, too many associated artists on too many discs with too little
Prince for too high a price - that sums up this perfectly. There's one basic
flaw with this release, and that is it runs for 467 minutes, yet Prince appears
for less than 220 of those minutes. A soundboard recording of a James Brown show
may be a beautiful thing, but on a James Brown release. Dedicating almost 2
discs to Sheila E may be a thing of greatness, but on a Sheila E release (or the
very least a Prince and associates release). Touting this 6CD set as "Prince -
Rehearsals & Concerts", then filling the discs to include everyone but Prince
doesn't sit well with me and I'd happily disregard the majority of Discs 1, 2
and 4, and a fair chunk of Disc 3 - which doesn't leave much remaining on a 6CD
set.

Disc 1 features a soundboard recording from James Brown's 1983 LA show, and
while the recording runs at 67 minutes, Prince's appearance lasts less than 2
minutes - and even those 2 minutes are not soundboard - instead the circulating
video recording has been used to fill the gap in the soundboard recording. As
good a soundboard recording as it is, this recording ever making it onto a
Prince release is a sorry state of affairs. Sabotage can sugar-coat it's
inclusion here any way they want to (including dedicating 7 [yes, 7!!] whole
pages of the booklet to it), but it's a pathetic attempt at filling the release
to the max. The closing 10 minutes of Disc 1 contain a slight rarity which
doesn't appear very often in the form of Prince's appearance at First Avenue
following the Jah Wobble show. The recording is really rather poor, however for
rarity value alone it's inclusion on the set is worthwhile - forget the quality
for once. Prince performs in his Jamie Starr voice with Sheila E banging on the
percussion throughout the loose jam.

Sheila sticks around to take over Disc 2 with her First Avenue 84 show with
Prince guesting on guitar for 'Too Sexy'. It's an admirable audience recording
for it's time, and although the crowd are a little loud in parts (the "we want
Prince / bring out Prince" shouts in particular), it's a very decent effort with
very little worthy of complaint - other than the show itself. Sheila has zero
stage presence and listening to the old dyke performing is only slightly more
enjoyable than being fisted lube-free. That aside, Prince manages to brighten
the show for his appearance, and the crowd certainly perk up for his time on
stage. Disc 2 closes with Prince's MTV interview from Nice 1985. It's addition
to this release is pointless in the extreme and it's better suited to Sabotage's
'Sound & Vision' sets. Still, it stretches the disc out by another 17 minutes,
which I guess is the point.

Finally with Disc 3 Prince gets almost an entire disc to himself with the Prom
Center birthday concert from 1985. The source of this is the 4DaFunk release '27
: Mutiny At The Prom' and whilst that was good, to me, this is better. The
recording is less harsh with a more balanced bass, although in fairness the
difference between the two is minimal and I only took preference to this version
after repeated listens with headphones. An excellent mini-show with many tracks
performed live for the first time ('A Love Bizarre', and 'Sometimes It Snows In
April'), and one played the one and only time ('Drawers Burnin'). Prince shares
the stage with his band along with Sheila E and The Family and it's a relaxed,
funky affair. Disc 3 closes with two versions of Prince and Sheila's brief
two-song performance at 7th Street Entry in July 1985. Quite why this has been
included twice is beyond me, and even though the accompanying booklet explains
the reasoning (one is sourced from a 4DaFunk release while the other is sourced
from 'MPLS'), it still makes no sense to have two
identical source recordings repeated one after the other. One cleaner, improved
version would have been quite sufficient.

Continuing on to Disc 4 which features zero Prince input and I'm going to skip
completely as it would be a total waste of 77 minutes of anyone's life. Disc 5
begins with the 32:34 version of 'I Would Die 4 U' before moving onto an
interview with Wendy & Lisa seemingly dating from the time of 'Fruit At The
Bottom'. The remainder of Disc 5 contains The Family's one and only complete
live show (until The Family Jamm of 2003) which is a very respectable audience
recording. It's a little heavy for my taste with some background humming for the
duration of the recording, but it's a nice recording and a decent show. Disc 6
focuses on the Purple Rain mini-show at First Avenue from August 1984. The
recording is very average even for it's time with a loud, obtrusive amount of
audience noise which can overpower the recording in places. There is some
distortion and the recording is heavy and muted.....however Sabotage have
managed to improve it from it's previous state on 'Computer
Blue', and whilst it won't be winning any awards for excellence, it's an
improvement and a listenable, very enjoyable show pre-Purple Rain tour mania.
It's a basic run-through of the main core of the tour and the majority of tracks
are performed as they would be on the Purple Rain tour. The obvious exception
being the opening 'Sex Machine' which bears more than a passing resemblance to
'Controversy' to begin with Prince adding the repeated "Get up, get on up"
lyric.

Purple Rush 6 then ends with Sheila's two song performance on Saturday Night
Live. The release comes with a massive 22 page booklet containing highly
detailed, candid notes from Sabotage regarding the choices for inclusion, the
re-mastering gone into each selection, and a fair amount of historic detail for
each selection. The booklet really is a thing of great beauty, and although I
could live without the 7 pages dedicated to the James Brown show, I cannot fault
their attention to detail and presentation. However, the musical content is the
most important thing on any release, and for me, this is a real disappointment
on this release. Far too little Prince on a Prince release is inexcusable, and
I'm left feeling very unimpressed by the content on this release.